Brockville’s Assault, Response and Care Centre has seen a dramatic spike in the number of victims of sexual and domestic violence in the last three years, according to manager Laurie Bourne-Mackeigan.

The centre now serves an average caseload of 240 referrals a year, double the number of victims it counselled just a few years ago, she said. That doesn’t include the number of drop-ins and the centre’s outreach programs, which have also increased.

And the cases have also become more complicated and diverse.

Bourne-Mackeigan, who has managed the centre for 10 years, said the centre is now seeing more human-trafficking cases, cultural differences including arranged marriages, refugees, transgender relationships, same-sex couples and people with mental health and addiction issues. About two per cent of the centre’s clientele are men, she added.

“So it’s not just domestic violence and sexual assault – there’s a bunch of things in the mix,” Bourne-Mackeigan said.

She attributes the growth in demand partly to the #MeToo movement that raised women’s awareness of sexual abuse, and to a general increase in the willingness of victims to seek help. More doctors and psychiatrists are referring victims to the centre, as well, she said.

But Bourne-Mackeigan said there is also an increase in the incidence of domestic violence and sexual assaults in Leeds and Grenville.

Police confirm to her that domestic violence is more of a problem in the United Counties than in other regions of Ontario, she said.

The Assault, Response and Care Centre, which operates under the auspices of Brockville General Hospital, covers all of Leeds and Grenville but most of the clients come from Brockville, Kemptville and Gananoque, she said. The centre also gets clients from Smiths Falls and as far as Cornwall, mostly because the clients are uncomfortable seeking help locally.

The centre, which offers free, confidential services to people affected by sexual assault or domestic violence, including women, men and children, operates on a budget of around $335,000 a year with a staff of Bourne-Mackeigan, two councillors, a peer-services worker and a part-time officer worker.

It also offers specialized nursing care for both sexual assault and domestic violence through Brockville General Hospital’s emergency department.

It gets its money from the Ministry of Health, unlike the provincial network of Sexual Assault Crisis Centres (SACCs), which are funded by the attorney-general’s department.

Leeds and Grenville is one of the few communities in Ontario that doesn’t have a SACC so the BGH centre tries to pick up the slack by offering more counselling and outreach, she said.

Bourne-Mackeigan said that supporters of the centre have appealed to the attorney-general’s department in the past for SACC funding to enhance its counselling and outreach programs. So far, the department has said no.

Bourne-Mackeigan said that many of the centre’s clients come from a family background in which domestic abuse is the norm. They tolerate the abuse because they have never known anything different.

“People are drawn to what they know, despite it not being good for them,” she said.

The centre’s counsellors try to get those clients to focus on their history of family relations and change the way they think about them, she said. It’s almost like getting them to “re-parent themselves.”

Bourne-Mackeigan said the centre doesn’t try to tell clients to get out of abusive relationships. That decision must come from the abuse victims themselves.

“I can’t impose my own beliefs and values on them.” she said.

If clients choose to stay with abusive partners, the counsellors teach safety planning and other ways to shield them from harm, she said.